Video:
Write Now! Persuasive Writing Prompts:
Open the Loop
Practice your copywriting skills with this prompt from The Professional Writers’ Alliance (PWA).
With this Write Now! tip, you’ll understand that leaving loops open arouse a prospect’s curiosity which will keep him engaged and interested.
To write effective copy, remember that your prospect is curious by nature. Charlotte Hicks Crockett illustrates a method to ignite this curiosity and write stronger copy. (Or read the transcript below.)
You may have heard the saying, “Curiosity killed the cat.” Well, it’s not just cats that are curious, it’s people too.
Our human nature drives us to resolve open questions. When someone acts differently than we expect, we ask “why?”
When someone has a secret, we want to know what it is.
It’s why young children ask what seems like 1,000 questions a day.
The TV and movie industry has taken full advantage of our curious nature with cliffhangers.
If you’re older, you may remember the summer everyone was asking, “Who shot J.R.?” Or more recently on the TV show Nashville, when season three ended with either Deacon or Beverly flat lining after surgery.
In copywriting we call these situations “open loops.” The mind wants to close the loop and so the prospect stays engaged in order to find the answer.
You can use an open loop to make sure someone watches your entire video, or reads your entire sales letter, or comes back to read your next blog post.
Give it a try – write a sentence or two that ignites curiosity.
And then, in my next video, I’ll reveal a powerful but sneaky strategy to create a strong emotional bond with your reader.
See what I did there?
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Write Now! persuasive writing prompts are presented by the Professional Writers’ Alliance (PWA) — a professional association just for direct-response industry writers. Learn about the many benefits of a PWA membership.
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These are all such creative and powerful - one and all. Thank you.
Lorna Macintosh –
I love to read sci fi and mystery novels. For this prompt I thought of a fictitious writing blog:
"Cheryl and I have two exciting projects for you to participate in:1) With your great and highly imaginative ideas, we've done preliminary worldbuilding for our novel "Spinning Galaxies". What happens when Terrans land on planet Aquarius?
2) What's the spookiest place you've visited? Cheryl has upcoming exciting interviews with indie authors: spooky places for vacation & inspiration!"
lisa25 –
In my former life, I was a district manager of an insurance company and one of my responsibilities was to motivate my agents to produce.
WE had some pretty good agents, and without the other agents knowing it, I was indirectly helping the good ones, because they worked very hard to help the district and themselves.
Campaigns usually had undisclosed gifts attached. Everyone wanted to know what the gifts were, but I satisfied the curiosity of the good agents by letting them know before hand. I gave them a heads up, because they made the district look great.
Billikpi –
I guess I've always used questions to form a loop. Example:
Have you ever seen a leatherback turtle lay her eggs?
Perhaps I should write like this:
Imagine yourself wind surfing on a powder beach in the tropics.
Did you know there was a thermal climb at one of the beaches in Aruba.
At Gaitlandburg, TN there are sitings of special endangered animals every day so keep an eye out for them.
There is a unique site at the Land Between the Lakes nature park in Western Kentucky.
I need to work on this!
Beth-el –